Top cop pares security assigned to Chicago officials

Taxpayer savings will exceed $650K, department says

July 09, 2011|By Rick Pearson and Jeremy Gorner, Tribune reporters

Ald. Ed Burke's controversial Chicago police security detail was pulled Friday and replaced with two retired officers paid by the city, according to a source familiar with details of a shakeup of security for city officials.

The Police Department released a statement late Friday saying Superintendent Garry McCarthy, after conducting a review, determined that several officials with security provided by the city "require less or no protection."

Most of the officers from the security details will go back on the street "at a savings of more than $650,000 to the taxpayers," the department said. Security was pulled completely from Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez and the next head of the Chicago Housing Authority.

The department would not say how many officers would be put back on the street.

"The number of assigned security is confidential; releasing that information could jeopardize and reduce the effectiveness of the security," Chicago police Lt. Maureen Biggane said.

Former Mayor Richard Daley will continue to be provided with a detail of active-duty police officers for "a limited time," Biggane said. Daley's security needs will be routinely re-evaluated, she said.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and McCarthy will continue to receive protection from active police officers, while others deemed to need security will be assigned retired police officers paid by the city. The mayor's detail had already been reduced, and McCarthy's will decrease, the department said without giving details.

Burke, chairman of the City Council's powerful Finance Committee, had been criticized for keeping a security detail of at least four full-time city police officers amid a police shortage and a city budget deficit.

Finance Committee chairmen since the 1940s have enjoyed the perk. Burke also had a court order entered during the Council Wars of the 1980s — when he helped lead opposition to Mayor Harold Washington — that required he have a security detail.

Under the new arrangement, Burke's four active-duty officers will be replaced by two retired cops, a source familiar with McCarthy's review said.

City Treasurer Stephanie Neely's detail also will be reduced and employ retired officers. Neely previously had two officers assigned to her, a spokeswoman said.